Latest Directives From the Ministry of Truth, April 27-May 1, 2011

The following examples of censorship instructions, issued to the media and/or Internet companies by various central (and sometimes local) government authorities, have been leaked and distributed online. Chinese journalists and bloggers often refer to those instructions as “Directives from the Ministry of Truth.” CDT has collected the selections we translate here from a variety of sources and has checked them against official Chinese media reports to confirm their implementation.

Central Propaganda Department

May 1, 2011

From the Central Propaganda Department: In the coming days media at all levels, including Internet media, must strengthen their public opinion leadership efforts related to important issues involving agriculture.

From the State Council Information Office: All websites are requested to continue effectively organizing positive on-line guidance related to the development and surveillance of the Internet. Regarding the related special topic, “Exposing Internet Management Abroad,” during the May Day period all websites are requested to continue implementing the requirements by prominently placing this topic on website front pages. When placing copy related to this topic in special areas, websites must accord with the demands of the notice and place it in important and prominent positions on front pages.

State Council Information Office: “Bold Service as an Underground Pioneer”

April 29, 2011

From the State Council Information Office: All websites are to strengthen on-line leadership and surveillance. In a prominent position on the headline news area of your front pages, please repost the article “Bold Service as an Underground Pioneer,” and leave it up until 8:00 pm.

From the State Council Information Office: All websites are requested to repost the article “Apple’s Google Maps Locator Function Incites Controversy Among Mobile Phone Users” in a prominent position on front pages and in the headline news areas on the front pages of opinion and commentary sections. Please keep the article up until 6 pm April 29, 2011.

From the Central Propaganda Department: In the coming days all levels of media, including Internet media, must advance reporting and public opinion leadership on the problem of food safety.

中宣部：食品安全

中宣部：各级媒体，包括网络媒体在近期内必须进一步做好食品安全问题的报道和舆论引导。

In China, several political bodies are in charge of Internet content control. At the highest level, there is the Central Propaganda Department, which ensures that media and cultural content follows the official line as mandated by the CCP. Then there is the State Council Information Office (SCIO), which has established an “Internet Affairs Bureau” to oversee all Websites that publish news, including the official sites of news organizations as well as independent sites that post news content.

This “Internet Affairs Bureau,” sends out very specific instructions to all large news websites daily, and often multiple times per day. Those instructions do not always mean that related contents are completely banned online, but they instruct websites to highlight or suppress certain type of opinions or information in a very detailed manner.

Chinese journalists and bloggers often refer to those instructions, as well as other type of censorship orders to media and websites, as “Directives from the Ministry of Truth.” The Ministry of Truth (or Minitrue, in Newspeak) is one of the four ministries that govern Oceania in George Orwell’s novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. In the Chinese blogosphere, it is the online nickname for the Central Propaganda Department and generally speaking, all other subordinate propaganda agencies including Internet supervision departments.